Chapter 5 – Defeat and victory
Saladin’s army marched out of Cairo singing war songs. A
young soldier riding beside Saladin asked, ‘Why do the Franks
hold Jerusalem when it’s so holy for us Muslims?’
‘It’s a very long story,’ said Saladin:
The problem is that the city of Jerusalem is holy for the Franks too.
Jesus lived much of his life in the city, and also died there. Jerusalem
is the most important place of pilgrimage for people from Europe, but
when the Turks took it in 1071, it was more difficult for Europeans to
visit. They were angry about that and they decided that they wanted
Jerusalem back. They called their campaign a crusade. They came
from across the sea and in 1099 they took the holy city. They killed
nearly everyone in the place! Now, after almost a hundred years,
many Franks are born in Palestine and they think that it’s their
home.
Of course, as you know, Jerusalem is a holy place for Muslims, too,
because the Prophet Mohammed, peace be on him, travelled from
there up into the sky to meet God and the prophets. Also the Al-Aqsa
Mosque is one of the oldest holy places of Islam. It’s wrong that the
Franks are using the building as a church and praying in it. Nuradin
wanted to bring Muslims together to win it back, and I want to make
his great hope come true!
Planning this new campaign, Saladin remembered Shirkuh
saying, ‘Never waste time. March quickly and take the enemy
by surprise!’ At first, Saladin’s soldiers followed his orders. They
were fast and deadly. The Frankish knights weren’t ready, and
the Muslims won without trying very hard. But then Saladin’s
men slowed down and stopped being careful. They thought that
they could take Jerusalem without any trouble!